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Ex SECRETARY'S COLUMN - Geoff Perks
"AND SO TO BED ...."
A phrase attributed to a very great Secretary, Samuel Pepys, and reasonably apt for anybody standing down from that
position in the Wey & Arun Canal Trust. After all, as my worthy predecessor Iris Piggott pointed out in Wey-South 119
when she left the Council of Management (CoM), "no more late night passes". The CoM is indeed much maligned for its
habit of talking until after 11.00pm and, occasionally, beyond midnight, but much of that talk is highly productive and
without it the canal's restoration would not have advanced so significantly during the last ten years or so.
Personally, I have greatly enjoyed most of my time as a member of the CoM. Of course there have been moments when it
wasn't all sweetness and light - any group of people is bound to be subject to a few ups and downs over an extended
period - but by and large my colleagues have been very helpful to me and have made the Secretary's task a pleasant one
and not really too onerous. My thanks to all of them and my best wishes for their continuing success which I hope to
watch for many years to come.
B2133 Crossing at Loxwood High Street
This remains the biggest item on the Trust's current Agenda. Eric Walker is developing all aspects of the project and
discussion of his reports is quite the most time consuming subject on the CoM's Agenda these days. At the AGM on 30
April it was explained that a fortnight previously, after a meeting which started "on site", the Council had finally
decided to leave the road level unchanged, re-route the relevant public services, lower the bed of the canal from
Brewhurst Lock to the other side of the B2133, reduce the depth of Brewhurst Lock and build a new lock after crossing
the road in order to make up the lost height. All right, that is a grossly simplified description of what is involved
but then, as I was told during one meeting, I am only an "arts person"!
I am very happy that the CoM's approval in principle of the plans for this Crossing has been finalised before my
withdrawal and that the necessary requests for Planning Permission etc are being set in motion. The length of time
which was taken to develop these plans clearly demonstrated the complexity of the whole operation. I look forward to
learning of progress in the near future.
Annual General Meeting
Usually I include in these Notes a brief mention of the happenings at each AGM or EGM as they occur but on this occasion
the Editor tells me that he is going to include his own report on the event - which gets me out of one job. However,
on a personal note, may I just record my thanks to all those who helped to set up the North Hall at the beginning of
the evening and to dismantle it at the end. Also, I am most grateful to Mrs Janet Phillips and her team for dealing
with the refreshments with their customary efficiency.
Summer Joys
As I write (4 May) the view from the window is wet, grey and windy - not a good omen for the summer, so we must hope
for better things to come. By the time this is published we shall have had the opening of the two Drungewick slipways,
coupled with the presentation of the IWA's Kenneth Goodwin Trophy, and also the two Small Boat Rallies at Lording's
and on the Loxwood Link respectively. The Poddle, however, will still be ahead of us - on Sunday 13 June - and I know
that Jo Beagles (this year's very worthy winner of the John East Trophy) has high hopes of achieving another major
success with the event.
M O N E Y
The annual accounts for 2003 and the way ahead at Loxwood
The Trust's Accounts for 2003 have been approved by the Council of Management and adopted by members at the AGM.
Copies have gone to the Charity Commission - on whose website they can be found - and to Companies House. If any
member would like a copy of the accounts please let me know. 2003 had been a comparatively quiet year with no
major construction on the canal; items of interest in the accounts included the money we spent on the brochure which
was launched at the aqueduct opening, the continuing success of the PODDLE (over £11,700 in 2003) and the contribution
to funds by WAEL after another successful year despite the shortage of water in late summer.
This year, after much agonising, we have decided which way to proceed at the Onslow Arms crossing. The cost is in the
order of £1,206,000 which, even if you say it quickly, is a considerable amount of money. We have tried to keep the
preliminary costs as low as possible - it looks as if they were will be under 4% of the whole project which reflects
great credit on Eric Walker, the Project Manager, in keeping them down. By comparison, and if we are to believe a
report in The Times earlier this year, the restoration of Chichester Cathedral spends ten times that amount on
feasibility studies and conservation plans with 40% of the funds raised going on paperwork.
Now comes the crunch. Will members help with the cost of the crossing? Some may like to give now, to enable the
project to start, and some may prefer to pledge an amount, in one or more stages, for me to 'call in' as the project
progresses. Moving the main sewer from Loxwood is expensive as we have to put up to Southern Water a bond of £89,000
in case our contractor goes bust. We get this bond back within a year of the work being completed, but we still have
to find the money in the first place. That money will then go into paying for the next stage of work. Moving the sewer,
the telephone cables and the water main are not very exciting parts of canal restoration but they have to be done before
we can build the B2133 road bridge itself. That has to be done in two parts, which itself puts the cost up, as we cannot
close the road completely at any one time.
I have put in a flyer with this bulletin so that members can let me know what support they can give now or in the
next twelve months. Please complete the flyer and let me have it back with your cheque (or Charities Aid Foundation
voucher) if you can help. The Chancellor will add 28p in the £ for those taxpayers who pay by cheque; Gift Aid cannot
be claimed on CAF donations. The Trust feels that we have got to get across the B2133, expensive though it is, if we
are to persuade people that we are on our way north towards Surrey. Please help if you are able to. I, for my part,
will ask Charitable Trusts for their help but members and trusts eye each other asking how much has been raised already.
We have to make a start; we have £46,000 in the pot so far having paid the design expenses. The crossing is very much
in the public eye and is the subject of many questions which we get asked at talks and on other occasions when we are
publicising the canal. Like the Drungewick Crossing, it has become a point of credibility for the Trust. How is the
Trust going to do it, and how is it going to be paid for? With your help, we did it at Drungewick. Now for Loxwood.
Jim Phillips
Treasurer & Fundraising Manager
Self-financing AGM
Thanks to the generosity of those attending the AGM on 30 April the cost of the refreshments and the hire of the
hall were covered by donations.
News from the Granary
Well, as ever, life is extremely busy at HQ. As we have said before, with all of the social events, fund raisers
and "opening days " there is never a dull moment in the life of a WACT Office Manager.
Bookings for charters for this year are really going well, with, to date, 57 confirmed bookings for Zachariah Keppel
and 8 for John Smallpeice, with many more provisional bookings waiting in the wings to be confirmed. So hopefully,
yet again, we are going to have a bumper year. Interest in the Pete Wynn has also been high and we sincerely hope to
beat last year's hire total too. Everybody has everything crossed for good weather (i.e. fabulous sunshine during the
day and downpours at night - within reason) so that we do not have to postpone some of the late summer charters as we
were forced to do last year.
The Easter Bunny cruises seem to be a distant memory but it should be said what a great success they were. People came
from far and wide and they were more popular that ever, with us having to deal with some very disappointed parents who
had left it too late to book!
We hope that everybody who attended the Slipway Opening and Small Boat Rally on the 16th of May, and of course Winston
Harwood's Lordings day, had a good time. They both went superbly and were wonderful occasions - but then, as they say,
weren't we lucky with the weather?
There are now some new incumbents at the Onslow Arms - Joy and Nigel. We look forward to working closely with them.
Bridget, Jackie and Susan
Trip Boat
Our season has got off to a cracking start with the Easter Bunny Cruises. These are organised by Lynn Nash and her
team with such professionalism that to try and write anything about them is quite difficult. The ladies who dressed
up as Bunnies were great, it takes a lot of courage and not a little acting skill to dance around at Brewhurst Lock
for boat trip after boat trip. Well-done Ladies. I think the whole day was best summed up by the asides I heard on the
towpath, many people saying that they were having a great day out.
Fanny Lines and her team are again manning the Onslow shed each Saturday and Sunday. I know that Fanny is short of
volunteers. If you can spare a day, please get in touch with her. You will be well briefed. It is a very pleasing day
out.
Her phone number is 01483 285229.
Congratulations to Matt Edwards; Richard Harverson; Derek Heath; Ted Lintott; Julian Morgan; David Cousins and John
Empringham who all passed their Boatman's Class 3 exam with the MCA. This theory and practical test is no pushover
and I am very grateful to all the above for their hard work in getting through the test.
Dusty Miller
THE BOAT WHICH RAN ON RAILWAY LINES - TO TIME -
May Upton ran on railway lines, to time, going up and down the dual slipway at Drungewick. It was mid-May and a
glorious day with plenty of Trust supporters out to see the culmination of so much planning and work.
It seemed a long time ago - three years - that we paid Southern Electric to move the power-cable pole in our Chairman's
field and install a transformer so that we could tap the 11Kv line for something more manageable. The cable and meter are
housed in a ready-use ammunition locker (from a RN frigate) which Eric Walker found for us in a Portsmouth scrapyard.
It is also from the pole that the power goes the next half-mile to Drungewick Lock to run the back-pumps there.
Our Chairman kindly added to the Trust's existing leased land. This involved the access lane and the land for the dual
slipways. The layout of the shallower slipway meant that some land had to be taken from the cattle meadow. If we had
not done so the concrete on which the trolleys run would have been too far out into the channel.
Alan Johnson dealt with the planning applications, which had to be approved by Chichester District Council. For reasons
too long to recount here, this all had to be done twice. Like so much of canal restoration, this is administrative work
which few people realise has to be done and for most supporters of the Trust they are quite unaware of the amount of
work required. Alan has a full-time job with English Heritage and we are grateful to him for finding the time, and for
using his expertise as an architect, to get these planning applications through.
The rails for the shallower slipway came from the Romney, Hythe & Dymchurch Railway; the cradles were made for us by
Devizes Marina. The construction details were pored over and amended by Roy Sutton, of IWA, to make sure that we had
the right design. The slipways were constructed by Richard Julian, partly with the help of his sons, in a variety of
weather that varied from flood to drought. Steel piling had to be driven so that the lower part of the slipway could
be laid in the dry; the danger of the overhead power cables meant that this could not be done with a crane but by
Richard's JCB perched on an innovative design which modified the cradles.
The money to make it all possible came largely from a £25,000 bequest from Roger Dimmick. Roger had been a member of
IWA Middlesex Branch and the legacy was to the IWA for a worthy project. The remainder of the £33,000 cost came from
Trust funds with some additional money provided by the Local Heritage Initiative to pay for what is called the 'cross-over'
where the approach lane joins Drungewick Lane.
The opening ceremony, much delayed for one reason or another, was performed by Roger's brother David. A memorial
plaque was unveiled and boats went up and down each of the two slipways. The sun shone and many of the 46 boats
which had come for the Small Boat Rally added colour and spectators to the scene. One more project for the Wey &
Arun completed. It seemed a suitable time for Vaughan Welch, the Chairman of IWA's Restoration Committee, to present
Peter Foulger with the Kenneth Goodwin Trophy - for the canal which had made the most progress in the previous year.
Much applause, to acknowledge how much had been done by Trust members
Onwards then, to the Onslow Arms crossing.
Jim Phillips, Vice-Chairman.
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